I´ve already taken the survey, so far I´m enjoying the software, it brings whole new perspectives to computer illustration, having developed my skills in traditional media for years, at first I found the transition difficult, it not only required to learn new skillsets, but also to learn the ins and outs of some very complex software, thankfully you guys understand this, I love the streamlined menus and interfaces, makes working in Black Ink much easier.

Right now my only issue, is the lack of layers, I know you are working on it, so please take your time, but not too much!

I would like to integrate the software´s creative capabilities much more in my work, right now I draw on another program, and then do some details in BI, export both images and merge them in Photoshop, sure it can be done, but it can also be done easier...

It would also be great if you developed some precise cursors instead of the mouse pointer, again it can be done, but can also get better!

So congratulations on your hard work, I have recommended your software to several people, it opens doors that where veiled for me, and lets us break new ground in our illustrations, keep up the hard work, and please, please, hurry the development of layers!

1. I am aiming that Black Ink will become the main force in my digital arsenal! It's already almost there, with having used it only for a day or two. It rekindled my passion for digital art in a way I haven't felt in years

3. Features I'd like: 3A: A new way to control color through the Controllers, for example, to be able to pick up the underlying color on canvas onto a stroke and use the controllers to mix it into the original color. This would give endless possibilities such as making a smear tool, fingerpainting, watercolor that lifts the original color as it passes it, or various psychedelic effects through controlling RGB and HSV values through pulses or for example pen pressure and mixing that with the original color source for the brush. Or even things like desaturated strokes the further you get from the center of the screen!

3B: Support for complex stylus pens, such as the Wacom Intuos 4 Airbrush pen (finger wheel to adjust brush properties or flow), and Wacom Intuos 4 Art Pen (rotation-sensitive in addition to tilt)

3C: Multiple brush strokes at once, with controller support per individual point, such as size and offset. This would give the possibility to do things such as a proper, spray based airbrush, or with the abovementioned color controllers hair strands with a 3-dimensional effect. Or even crazier things like a rainbow spiderweb that generates it's own webbing (sort of, would need a lot of tweaking for it to look right but it'd certainly be awesome )

thepropheto: little heads up, layers are very close to a release, the version we'll be showing at Siggraph will have them.

mimterest: You really understood the spirit of Black Ink! here are some thoughts about your feedback:

1 we'll make sure of that 2 thanks for the tip!

3A: We are planning something like that yes. We came to the same conclusion as you after we found some fun little trick. It is not efficient at all but you can try for fun: just save your document as a png and while still on the original document, load it as an image-base color. from there you will be able to alter the picked color in the color shifting tab and therefore apply controllers to it in the hue, saturation and value controllers outputs. Anyway this will eventually become a real integrated feature and all the effects you imagined will be easy to make.

3B: Noted! But don't expect this anytime soon, we have a lot of urgent features to add before. Do you use those complex pens a lot? What value do you imagine controlling with these features? I'm guessing opacity with the wheel would be a first choice?

3C: This also is something we planned a little further down the road. Actual implementation is far from defined yet but this will clearly open infinite ways to make brushes. This will make even more sense when we'll add the possibility to offset the stroke from the input position.

ben-o: About the complex brushes, I actually don't own them yet, but it's bugged me for a while that my pen doesn't react to rotation. My financial situation is now better, as soon as my budget allows I intend to get the rotation sensitive Intuos 4 Art Pen. People who use Wacom products and have gotten the Art Pen generally never want to use the regular pen again!

The most obvious choice for what value to control is rotation for this imagine a square but the X scale multiplied by 0.4 so it's squished, that's like a square felt marker. Then hook the rotation of the brush to that rotation value, maybe tilt for adjusting the X scale, and you could get a very natural feeling felt pen. You could also treat it like a valve, and desaturate your strokes if you rotate it to the right, and back towards vibrant if you rotate it left. I have no idea what number inputs it produces though, so for that kind of functionality a clamp and potentially multiply would be needed.

As for the airbrush, it's not one of my primary goals for this quarter, maybe I won't even get it this year especially with how there is very little to do with it in Black Ink.

When the time comes that multi-tip brushes are a reality, if they could work like a spray mechanic, the airbrush finger wheel could easily be used to control density and opacity dynamically to try and simulate a real mechanical airbrush It'd be neat to try something a bit crazier too, especially with multi-tip brushes. Maybe have them scatter and squiggle in every direction the more you adjust the finger wheel? Basically, I don't think I'd have a use for it before multi-tip brushes.